Talks aimed at resolving the Drumcree parade dispute have broken up without agreement, as a legal appeal over the contentious march is scheduled for Monday.
Northern Ireland Secretary of State Chris Bryant described the situation as being between a “rock and a hard place” after unsuccessful late-night negotiations at Hillsborough Castle with representatives from the Orange Order and Garvaghy Road residents on the fifth day of the standoff.
The Portadown District of the unionist Orange Order wants to complete its traditional route for the first time in almost 30 years after the Parades Commission ruled it should be allowed along the Garvaghy Road, but the coalition of residents in the largely nationalist area is opposed to the march going ahead.
[ What next for Drumcree standoff? It’s complicated ...Opens in new window ]
A Belfast High Court appeal by the Garvaghy Road Residents’ Coalition to stop the march in Portadown, Co Armagh, was put back to Monday to facilitate the talks. The hearing had been due to take place on Friday.
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Breandán Mac Cionnaith, of the Garvaghy Road Residents’ Coalition, told reporters late on Thursday night that Bryant wants residents and the Orange Order to reach agreement but contended that “the reality is” there is “no such thing as half a march”.
He said: “There’s a march, or there’s not a march – simply that.”
Mac Cionnaith said it was “not possible” to get a “meeting of minds” in the talks.
Asked if the talks had run their course, he said: “For the time being, yes.”
Mac Cionnaith added: “They may want to re-embark upon another process at some stage, but the current process is done.”
Bryant described the talks as being between a “rock and a hard place” as they ended without agreement.
“This is the end of these conversations,” he said.
“We haven’t come to a settled agreement and it’s a shame but my door remains open obviously, tomorrow and in future days.
“We’ve discussed a wide range of options, including mediation, including an option where the right to march was respected but wasn’t exercised, including an option where there was a final march and no further applications for marches into the future, and we’ve not managed to come to agreement on any of all that.”
Bryant added: “I still believe that keeping conversations going and the dialogue going is a really important part of coming to a resolution for everybody.
“There’s a court case on Monday. Obviously, we’ll have to see how that plays out.
“And I would say that the law, in the end, is the law.”
Also on Thursday night, loyalist activist Jamie Bryson said the Orange Order will accept the determination of the legal appeal on Monday.
He challenged residents of Garvaghy Road to commit to walking away if their appeal fails.
“The challenge that we would put down to the Garvaghy Road residents – they’re going to the Court of Appeal on Monday – if the Court of Appeal upholds this determination, commit to accepting the law and walk away, and we’ll do the same.
[ From local row to peace-process shambles: How the Drumcree standoff developedOpens in new window ]
“Abide by the law and if the Court of Appeal upholds the determination, get off the road, stop breaking the law, and allow the parade to go ahead.
“If we lose, we’ll accept that,” he said. “We have followed the legal process all along.
“So if we lose substantively and the Court of Appeal sets the Parades Commission’s decision aside, we’ll accept that because we’ve abided by the law at all times – they haven’t.”
The Drumcree dispute “remains as it has been,” said Portadown District master Nigel Dawson speaking after talks with Bryant at Hillsborough Castle on Thursday night.
He said: “Tonight remains as it has been: That we are in possession of a positive determination issued by the Parades Commission.
“It went through the Court of Appeal and the High Court sat on it and has decided that we have the right to walk down the Garvaghy Road back to Carleton Street Orange Hall, and I would now call on the Secretary of State to apply the law.”
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On Friday, Stormont justice minister Naomi Long urged Orange Order members to “do the right thing”, saying they had the legal right to complete their march along the Garvaghy Road, but suggested doing so may not be wise.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland programme on Friday, Long said the trauma of the Drumcree dispute reawakened after almost 30 years “runs very deep” not just on the Garvaghy Road but across Northern Ireland.
“I think people are feeling a degree of despair, a degree of incredulity that we are back here again after 28 years,” she said.
“People are angry that this has happened and are frustrated that we are back in this kind of dispute.”
She made an appeal to the Orange Order that there is a “difference between what the law permits you to do and what is wise”.
“They have now established that they have a right to walk on the Garvaghy Road, they do not need to exercise that right,” she said.
“They have established it in law.
“They can do the right thing by the entire community on the Garvaghy Road, and I believe many people who support the Orange Order and right across Northern Ireland, and they can go back by the route that they went to Drumcree Hill, because there is another route of exactly the same length that will take them back to Carleton Street, Orange Hall, and over which there is no dispute.
“I would appeal to people to be wise.
“The courts can’t rule for reconciliation … that requires people to show wisdom and courage and grace and generosity, and that’s what’s required at this point in time.”
The Drumcree policing operation has cost about £3 million (€3.5 million) so far, Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) chief constable Jon Boutcher said earlier on Thursday.
Addressing the Northern Ireland Policing Board in Belfast, Boutcher also warned that the consequences of forcing an Orange Order march down the Garvaghy Road “could be catastrophic” for Northern Ireland.
The PSNI is the “shock absorber” when society fractures, he told members of the oversight body.
Central to the residents’ case at the Court of Appeal is a PSNI submission to the Parades Commission before the body determined last Friday the march could proceed.
The meeting between residents and Bryant, who has been involved in discussions with the Orange Order and Garvaghy Road residents since Monday, began on Thursday evening.
A delegation, led by the group’s spokesman Mac Cionnaith and solicitor Darragh Mackin left Portadown to travel to Hillsborough Castle at 5.15pm, but returned a short time later with the meeting understood to have been rescheduled for 8pm. Mac Cionnaith said the group’s position had not changed.
[ From local row to peace-process shambles: How the Drumcree standoff developedOpens in new window ]
On his return, he met the Dundalk folk band The Mary Wallopers, who performed on Garvaghy Road on Thursday.
During Thursday’s Policing Board meeting, Boutcher said there will be “consequences” for those who blocked the Garvaghy Road last Sunday.
Northern Ireland first minister Michelle O’Neill and Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald were among those who stood with thousands of protesters before the planned parade.
Investigations into lawbreaking are “well under way” and will be “expedited”, Boutcher told board members.
Despite the “challenges” of the security operation, there has been no disorder in what he described as a “wickedly difficult” situation for officers.
“No one’s been injured ... We’ve kept things calm, and we’ve created a space to try to resolve this,” Boutcher added.
The visible policing presence has since reduced in Portadown but the situation remained “challenging and complex”, members were told.
Boutcher said the cost of the policing operation has been £3 million so far, but warned of the consequences and cost “if they get it wrong”.
Earlier this week, Portadown Orange Order members called for the chief constable to resign over his handling of the standoff.
Boutcher said his aim is to facilitate the Parades Commission ruling “but in a proportionate and safe way”.
“We are not back in 1997. We are not expected, and nor will we, force members of the Orange Order – many of whom are of a certain age – through a hostile crowd, which will be unsafe and will be disproportionate, and where the wider consequences for Northern Ireland could be catastrophic.
“The parade could not safely be facilitated on Sunday 27th of September, because of an unnotified protest that blocked the route. Officers repeatedly engaged with those involved and issued warnings.
“We considered a range of options, but assessed that the use of force required to clear the road risked serious harm and an escalation into disorder. That would not have been proportionate.
“The determination does not mean that the PSNI will move down the Garvaghy Road with force.”
The policing board is also investigating whether Sinn Féin board member Deirdre Hargey has breached the board’s code of conduct by allegedly taking part in a protest on the Garvaghy Road. The board’s chairman, Brendan Mullan, said that, following complaints, he has instigated proceedings to investigate the matter.
The standoff was raised in the Dáil on Thursday, where Sinn Féin’s David Cullinane warned that the controversy could “place at risk the accommodations that have developed around Orange Order marches across the North”.
Tánaiste Simon Harris said “this isn’t simply a green versus orange issue. It’s actually an issue between whether people want to go forwards or backwards.”
Earlier, Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee said “legally, the situation is that the Government has no remit or role in parading”. She said she was “very conscious of that” but had engaged with Bryant and others to try to find a solution.
Earlier, at the launch of Sinn Féin’s alternative budget, McDonald wished the continuing talks “fair speed and fair wind”. She said the “answer to this is to make absolutely clear that there will be no Orange march on the Garvaghy Road.
“If the talks can arrive at that, that’s great”.
